Auguste-Nicolas-Eugène Millon was born on April 24, 1812, in Châlons-sur-marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France to the family of a transport entrepreneur Henry-August de Millon de Chateaurieux and Marie-Elisabeth-Joseph-Louise Thibault.
After completing his secondary education in Chàlons-sur-Marne Millon decided on a medical career in the army. In 1832 he was admitted as a student to the Val-de-Gràce military teaching hospital in Paris, and two years later he qualified for active duty as a surgeon. He served successively in Bitche, Lyons, Algeria, and Metz; in 1836 he received the Doctor of Medicine from the Paris Faculty of Medicine.
Millon first worked as a teaching assistant at the Collège Rollin in Paris, Millon decided on a medical career in the army. After graduating from Val-de-Gràce military teaching hospital in Paris in 1834 he served successively in Bitche, Lyons, Algeria, and Metz. Millon’s long interest in chemistry prompted him, however, to take up military pharmacy rather than surgery and medicine. A brief appointment as préparateur and tutor at the Val-de-Gràce was followed by a tour of duty at several military installations, and finally by a professorship of chemistry at the Val-de-Gràce in 1841. During the next six years, Millon established himself as an outstanding chemist and teacher. Probably because of his unorthodox views, he was abruptly transferred in 1847 as a professor to the military teaching hospital in Lille, which not only separated him from his students and friends but also seriously disrupted his scientific work. From 1850 until his retirement in 1865, he served as the top-ranking pharmacist for the French army in Algeria.
